1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to art storage devices, and more particularly pertains to a rotating pastel storage tabouret which provides pastel artists with a device whereby they can place their pastels on a slanted surface in color groups, for example, reds, blues, yellows, greens, etc. The artist can rotate the tabouret, bringing each group of pastels within easy grasp for selection and use, and orderly return the pastels to their appropriate color area after usage. A top central tray compartment allows pastels in immediate use to be retained to preclude having to hold them together in the hand. One of the most difficult and frustrating problems a pastel artist faces is in maintaining some order within the pastels' color groups while working on a painting. Pastels have many gradations of tints and shades. Pastel artists waste a considerable amount of time and become frustrated searching for a particular pastel stick with other available storage devices. Art storage devices now available on the market are of the simple bin-type with slotted boxes for each pastel stick. The individual pastel sticks are difficult to retrieve and require too much concentration when returning them to their exact bin, rather than being able to spend more time concentrating on the painting. Some artists use a flat surface stationary palette on which they keep their pastels. This soon becomes a jumbled conglomerate of mixed up pastel sticks and it soon becomes very difficult to select wanted colors. The present invention solves these problems by grouping pastels by color groups on a slanted rotatable surface which is easily accessible to the artist. The storage tray of the rotating tabouret of the present invention is divided into sixteen compartments for organizing sixteen pastel color groups.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of art storage devices are known in the prior art. A typical example of such an art storage device is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 215,766, which issued to R. Dusek on Oct. 28, 1969. This patent discloses a circular paint storage box having a removable lid with an attached handle. The storage box is provided with a central circular recess and a plurality of peripheral storage recesses. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 237,171, which issued to F. Norman on Oct. 14, 1975, discloses an artist's palette provided with a plurality of circular storage recesses. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 264,096, which issued to J. Jones on Apr. 27, 1982, discloses a generally rectangular art palette having a plurality of peripheral storage recesses and a removable cover. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 265,915, which issued to M. Tivey on Aug. 24, 1982, discloses a water color palette having a generally oval configuration which is provided with a plurality of circular storage recesses of varying demensions. U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,490, which issued to V. Thompson on Mar. 23, 1976, discloses an artist's palette which utilizes a pad of disposable sheets of material for mixing paints. The palette has a removable cover which holds the palette pad in place and a cap for sealing a handle recess in the palette. The palette is designed to be easily stacked or carried about by the artist.
While the above mentioned devices are suited for their intended usage, none of these devices provide a rotating tabouret having a pyramidal compartmentalized storage tray for storing pastels by color groups. Additionally, none of the aforesaid art storage devices utilizes a pyramidal cover lined with sponge rubber and provided with resilient clips for engagement with a pyramidal compartmentalized storage tray. Inasmuch as the art is relatively crowded with respect to these various types of art storage devices, it can be appreciated that there is a continuing need for and interest in improvements to such art storage devices, and in this respect, the present invention addresses this need and interest.